The present invention relates broadly to fishing lure boxes and, in particular, to fishing lure boxes designed to be secured to the side of a boat to hold fishing lures in a position conveniently accessible to a fisherman.
In various types of fishing, it is not uncommon for a fisherman to use a number of different fishing lures to accommodate different conditions and/or to find the lure that happens to be the most effective on a given day. When fishing from small boats, i.e., canoes or similar watercraft with limited interior space, it is desirable to store a plurality of lures in a place and manner such that the lures are conveniently accessible to the fisherman while also requiring a minimum amount of interior boat space. Presently, it is common practice to have lures lying about the boat where they may create a hazard to the boat occupants. If the lures are kept within a conventional tackle box within the boat, the fisherman frequently has to search through the cluttered contents of the box to find the desired lure.
The U.S. Pat. to Baron No. 2,316,833 discloses a tackle box having a plurality of individual compartments, each compartment having a supporting rod about which the hook of a fishing lure is placed to retain the lure within the individual compartment. The box is provided with a pair of rods hinged to the box, each rod having a curved hook portion which loosely fits over the side of a boat. The tackle box disclosed in the patent to Baron has a number of disadvantages. For example, the capacity of the tackle box is limited by the number of individual fishing lure compartments. Also the width or size of the individual compartments may be such that large lures would not fit within the Baron box. Additionally, since the tackle box is merely loosely hooked to the side of the boat, there is the possibility that the box could be inadvertently jarred and knocked to the floor of the boat or even overboard. The fisherman must be careful to insure that he replaces the lures securely on the lure supporting rods so that the lures will not fall from their supports and become entangled in the bottom of the boat in the event that the boat is subjected to water turbulence.
It is also known in the prior art to secure fishing lures and hooks in foam material. A number of prior art lure carriers utilize foam material as a lure support. These prior art lure carriers are typically either small carriers designed to be attached to the belt or arm of the fisherman or relatively bulky tackle boxes which would occupy significant floor space of a small boat. The smaller lure carriers have a disadvantage of limited lure capacity.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art in that it is a fishing lure box designed to be firmly secured to the side of a boat and which has a block of elastomeric material into which the hooks of fishing lures are removably attached. The lure box of the present invention is provided with resilient clip arms which hold the lure box firmly against the side of the boat eliminating the hazards of accidentally jarring the lure box from its position on the side of the boat. The fishing lures are easily placed in and removed from the elastomeric material and held firmly therein so that the lures cannot be jarred from their support in turbulent water. The present invention includes an integrally molded plastic box that may be inexpensively manufactured and sold at relatively low retail prices. Each fisherman in the boat could have his or her own lure box secured to the boat. The lure box may simply be left in place on the boat after a particular fishing excursion once the fisherman has removed the lures from the box. The fisherman does not have to transport the lure box back and forth from his dwelling to the boat upon each instance of use.